The Best of Ernie Kovacs

Amazon.com

For anyone interested in the history of television comedy, The Best of Ernie Kovacs is indispensable. This five-part series, originally broadcast on PBS, is a six-hour guided tour through Kovacsland, and a more surreal or cockeyed landscape has never been broadcast over "the orthicon tube." The best cigar-mustache combo since Groucho, Kovacs, who perished in a car wreck in 1962, was one of the fledgling medium's pioneers. He turned staid television convention on its ear and satirized the medium itself (David Letterman is a kindred spirit). The Best of Ernie Kovacs offers a generous sampling of more than 100 blackouts, musical diversions (including a simian version of "Swan Lake"), sketches, and technological dalliances. The macabre game show "Whom Dunnit," in which a panel must determine the identity of the mystery guest who has wounded an unfortunate studio audience member, would not be out of place on "Saturday Night Live." Another highlight is "Eugene," a 1961 broadcast in which not a word is uttered. And let's not forget the musical gorilla-costumed Nairobi Trio, one of Kovacs's signature creations. The DVD edition has a few noteworthy additions, including a clip from Kovacs's 1959 quiz show, Take a Good Look. In another memorable clip, Edie Adams, Kovacs's wife, performs her definitive impersonation of Marilyn Monroe (singing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett"). Though this footage dates back to television's early days, this is no antiquated museum piece. Some of it is dated, but much of what Kovacs unleashed on an unsuspecting public is fresher, funnier, and more original than most of what passes for prime-time programming. Boy, do we need him now. --Donald Liebenson

Description

Box Set - Rare Footage of Ernie Kovacs' Quiz Show; Take a Good Look Clues; Edie Adams' Legendary Routine Impersonating Marilyn Monroe; Interviews with Ernie Kovacs' Associates

Customer Reviews:

Ernie Kovacs...a true television genius!.......2007-08-25

It's been 45 years since his death but the legend of Ernie Kovacs lives on in this DVD retrospective. I do agree there are some sketches repeated in this collection but you have to admit this is great stuff! I truly wish the "Story of a Drop of Water" was in this set. The work put out by Ernie Kovacs is a treasure. As for me I just can't get enough "Mack The Knife" in German when I watch this!

Wonderful stuff.......2007-07-09

I grew up on Laugh-In and after discovering Ernie Kovaks, I realized that all those silly Super8 skits I made as a teen in the 1970's were unwitting rip offs of his short gags. Great stuff though I doubt it stands the test of time, most of the gags depend on technical slight of hand that is de rigeur today and the pacing is from, as Jack Lemon explains, a slower era. Still, great stuff and wonderful actor. A thinking person's comedian, for sure!

Kovacs!.......2006-08-01

Someone once said that Ernie Kovacs was an excess you'll never get enough of. He was brilliant, funny, off the wall and saw the possibilties of television at a time when most TV network executives were still trying to figure out what people would watch. If you are from the x or Y generations and are too young to remember him at all, you might wonder what all the hoopla is about, which is probably because you are so used to more recent comedy (SNL, Python, et.al) that was largely influenced by him. When you look at what he did, imagine you are watching it in 1955 or 1960 on a black and white TV. This collection has some great stuff on it, such as Kovac's Swan Lake Ballet dance by dancers in cheap-looking, novelty store gorilla costumes. When you watch it, imagine the ramifications of allowing trained apes out of their cages to dance ballet on TV. Another bit is Albert Gridley, a man interviewed by Kovacs, whose ordeal with being stranded in the desert is one "he will never forget". Of course, he forgets everything that happened to him and Kovacs has to remind him of every part of the story. Project this onto todays TV with, say, a Weather Channel "Storm Stories" documentary where a storm victim is interviewed about a harrowing experience. Imagine the absurdity if the victim then forgets every detail of the experience. Check it out!

Great Stuff, but..........2006-07-30

Ernie Kovacs was the guy who said televsion (50s style) was called a medium because it was neither rare nor well done. He instsed on looking at things his own way, and using TV's technology in ways no one else would even imagine.

Today, whenever a business seminar leader trots out the well-worn cliche "thinking outside the box," Ernie's face comes before me.

And music was innate. So much of Ernie's TV tech stuff was 100% visual, it was tantamount to viewing a series of silent films.

And we remember that silent movies had musical accompaniment. Ernie had to furnish music which would at once associate itself with the ruthlessly original visual imagery and also be, hopefully, something we'd not heard before.

He scoured the globe for 1950s-era music that you'd never heard before. For example, even fifty years later, I cannot hear the version of "Jalousie" on this CD without seeing the "office equipment" visuals he made. And I'd be grateful for a plateful of fish.

Ernie's outlook on things has warped me for life. He made the fifties what they were. There would not be a Saurday Night Live but for his influence.

Now, here's the "but." This collection is better than no collection at all, but not much better. Kovacs was an editor of great skill, and the editing on these DVDs is awful.

So, some Kovacs is better than none at all. But I would hope somebody would come along and do it right some time...

Go back in history!.......2006-03-24

I read the other reviews and have to admit some of this stuff is not that funny. The reason?...after years of watching SNL, Hee Haw, billions of comedy skits on billions of channels...how could it be? Kovacs was one of the originals of comedy though I'm sure even he borrowed from others. This held my interest because some of it was actually funny! Also, it is fun just to imagine I was watching these live on an old B&W television back then and just vegging on the couch with Ernie after a hard day of work. You will find in these skits that many have borrowed from Kovacs over the years.

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